Macy’s Q3 earnings: ‘entering holiday period in healthy inventory position’

Macy’s Inc (NYSE: M) opened 12% up this morning after reporting upbeat results for its third financial quarter as inventories returned to “healthy” levels.

Macy’s Inc raised its future outlook today

Investors are cheering also because the management raised its guidance for the full year on Thursday.

Macy’s now forecasts $2.88 to $3.13 of adjusted per-share earnings on up to $23.2 billion in sales. According to Jeff Gennette – its Chief Executive:

The retail company improved its gross margin from 38.7% to 40.3% in the recently concluded quarter. Macy’s stock is currently down about 40% versus its year-to-date high.

Notable figures in Macy’s Q3 earnings release

• Earned $43 million versus the year-ago $108 million
• Per-share earnings also declined from 39 cents to 15 cents
• Adjusted EPS printed at 21 cents as per the press release
• Sales tanked 7.1% year-over-year to $4.86 billion
• Consensus was breakeven on $4.78 billion worth of sales

Merchandise inventories at $6.03 billion were down 5.9%. CEO Gennette added in the earnings release:

What else was noteworthy?

Other notable figures in the earnings report include a less-than-expected 7.0% hit to same-store sales. Macy’s chief executive also said today:

Bloomingdale and Macy’s branded stores saw comparable sales slip 3.2% and 7.6%, respectively while Bluemercury’s same-store sales increased 2.5% year-on-year instead.

Earlier this week, Jefferies analyst Ashley Helgans reiterated her “buy” rating on Macy’s stock but lowered the price target to $16. That still represents about a 13% upside from here, though.